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‘The drinking was unhealthy and damaging to my body and my social life. That’s beyond question,’ he said in an interview with ShortList magazine.

‘I was living in constant fear of who I’d meet, what I might have said to them, what I might have done with them, so I’d stay in my apartment for days and drink alone.

Radcliffe, pictured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, said he was so concerned with his public behaviour when drunk that he became 'a recluse at 20'

Radcliffe admitted last year that he quit drinking after he became 'so reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff'

‘I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic – it wasn’t me. I’m a fun, polite person and it turned me into a rude bore.

‘For a long time people were saying to me, “We think you have a problem,” but in the end I had to come to the realisation myself.’

Daniel Radcliffe when he first became Harry Potter. His drinking became a problem after he turned 18

Radcliffe’s drinking became an issue after he turned 18.

With his problem worsening, he spoke
to Gary Oldman, who played Sirius Black in the Potter films and battled
alcoholism himself in the 1990s.

Radcliffe said: ‘I did talk to him
about it once. I didn’t say I had a problem -–because I didn’t think I
did at that point – but I told him I shared that mentality he had for
actively seeking out chaos.

‘He
just said, “You can’t keep doing this. You’ve got too much to lose”.
And that really went in. But not even he could have stopped me alone – I
had to stop myself.

‘And stopping has shown me a world of happiness that I didn’t think was possible.’

Radcliffe admitted last year that he quit drinking after he became ‘so reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff’.

At
the time he said: ‘As much as I would love to be a person that goes to
parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn’t
work for me. I do that very unsuccessfully.’

His latest comments are the most candid he has been about his drink problem.